


The Girl is a Witch

by McFif



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon scenes retold, F/M, I think it improves the overall reading experience, POV Second Person, There's also quite a bit of Keith/Hollis friendship, almost canon compliant, minor vague Twilight references, please feel super free to imagine Griffin reading this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 04:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19985800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McFif/pseuds/McFif
Summary: The girl is a witch, you thought. She possessed some kind of power – you hesitated to use the word magic – the nature and extent of which you could not even begin to guess.This is how you, Keith, fall in love with Aubrey Little.





	The Girl is a Witch

**Author's Note:**

> Keith and Aubrey's relationship is one of the most interesting dynamics on Amnesty to me, and I really think they'd be cute together. Honestly, it seems unrealistic that Keith would not fall in love with Aubrey because she's perfect and how could he not? So this is me painting a picture of how that (Keith falling in love) might go, while also answering a question very dear to my heart: How did Aubrey get down from the mountain after episode 28 when her leg was hurt. I read over the end of the episode several times and came to the conclusion that the peak of Mount Kepler has somehow returned to the top of the mountain? I still may have misunderstood something though, because it has been mentioned in later episodes that it's gone, so...

You remember the first time you saw Aubrey Little.

Although, of course, you didn't know her name at the time. You did not see “Aubrey Little”, all you saw was red curls, big, dark eyes, and a denim vest worn over a fleece jacket. You remember the flash of a nose ring, the ring of her voice. Beside her, Jake. Looking back, your attention had been focused on Jake, until you turned around and left and _she magically made you slip and fall face down into the snow _. That finally did get your attention.__

The girl is a witch, you thought. She possessed some kind of power – you hesitated to use the word magic – the nature and extent of which you could not even begin to guess.  
You felt extremely stupid looking at the yahoo home page later that night. The cursor blinked in and out of existence in the input field. _Do witches exist_. Your finger hovered over the enter key, and a vague sense of _deja-vu_ overcame you, like you were watching yourself in a movie scene.

  
You wanted to tell Hollis, but then realized that you couldn't. You didn't want to look like an idiot in front of the others, _especially_ not Hollis. And, if you were entirely honest with yourself, it didn't really seem like your place to tell. What was the point in that anyway? What did you expect people to do? Pat you on the shoulder and say “good job, Keith, you found a girl who can do witchcraft”?

Aubrey.

  
Her name was Aubrey. It hadn't been difficult, finding out who the the black girl with the red hair was. There weren't many young women in Kepler who fit this description. When Kirby told you she was a magician, your heart dropped for a second. Suddenly everything seemed so real. Then he had added that she had done at show at a hotel in Snowshoe, and oh, of course, a magician is not a wizard. You felt equally relieved and disappointed. For a second, you thought that it must have been a trick.

__*_ _

  
You don't remember much about crushing your bike. Of course you know what happened, how a creature that seemed to be some kind of goat walking on two legs knocked you out with a shovel, but it's more like a story you've told yourself over and over, which has now replace any sensory memories. The next thing you truly remember is Aubrey's voice asking the bleeding to stop.

  
Bleeding?, you think, and open your eyes, except it's a much bigger effort than it should be because you're suddenly aware that your whole body is aching.

  
Bent over you, Aubrey comes into focus. Her hands are glowing, illuminating her face from an unusual angle. The light is refracted in the dark, round sunglasses on her nose.

  
“Yeah, dude, I'm doing magic, saving your life”, she snaps, “stay the fuck down.”

  
So you do, because honestly, you couldn't move if you wanted to.

  
You slip back into darkness and dream of a witch who is also an angel, but still a witch, and even while you are unconscious you are scared.

When you wake up on some kind of operating table it still feels like a nightmare, but the pain in your leg and head is far to real for you to ever dream it up, so you must be awake and tied down on a table. Again, the first thing you hear is Aubrey's voice. “I'm not gonna murder him”, she says this time, making panic well up inside you. You try to get up, but your body is sore and seems to carry every movement out in slow motion.

“Hey... What the-”, you try to shout, but it comes out as more of a slur. “What the hell did you do to me? What's going on?”

As your head stops spinning, you realize that the two of you are alone in a room flooded with dim, cold light. You don't see any windows, so it may be a basement. Aubrey is wearing her sunglasses, which makes you uncomfortable. With half of her face covered up, it's difficult to judge whether she's actually about to murder you or not.

“I know”, she tries to hush you. “I didn't do anything. How are you doing.”

“Bad”, you answer truthfully. You want to say more, but there are no words to describe what has happened to you that won't make you sound like a lunatic.

Under the sunglasses, Aubrey's lips smile weakly. “You... were attacked by a goatman, right?”, she reminds you.

“I... that... was that real?”

“Yep. Uh, yeah, unfortunately it was.”

You want to ask her if she's sure, but can't quite bring yourself to acknowledge the possibility that it is, so you deflect. Instead you ask: “Where's my bike.”

Aubrey's smile fades, “Your bike was trashed, Keith, I'm sorry. Goatman tore it up pretty good.”

Somehow the fact that she keeps on bringing up this goatman makes you angry. There should be no such thing as goatmen or magic, yet it appears that one of the former has wrecked your bike and your body and there's a girl capable of the latter who won't tell you what the hell is going on. You try to get up, but as soon as you try to move, an indescribable pain shoots through your leg and your vision becomes spotty.

Aubrey takes a step forward, ready to push you back down. “I wouldn't”, she says. It sounds like a bit of a threat.

“Where – where are we? Is this a hospital?”

“Well we're sort of somewhere safe, Keith. But before we get y'all fixed up, I need to talk to you. And I don't know why I'm falling into a West Virginia accent”, she interrupts herself. “Except that you're doing it and I'm mirroring it.”

This will make you smile, later, when you think back of this conversation. But right now it doesn't, because you are scared.

“Listen, I don't know what the fuck you think you're doing. You need to get me to a hospit– you need to – Help!” Maybe there is someone else upstairs who can hear you, you think, banging your hand on the metal surface beneath you despite the headache it gives you. But you're immediately interrupted by Aubrey, who is right in front of you now. She's not tall, but with you sitting on the table your faces are at a level.

“I would say at this point I don't need to do anything. At this point, you are the one who needs to listen. Do you understand?”

She snaps her finger, and immediately her whole hand catches fire. Except, it's not burning; the flame surrounds it yet Aubrey doesn't seem to feel any pain. You notice that it's a very different kind of glow than when you woke up after your crash and Aubrey claimed to be healing you. And it is most definitely a real flame, because you can feel its warmth on you face, like a promise of pain.

“I fucking knew it”, you mutter, stupidly, recklessly.”I fucking knew you were doing something weird back at the ski slopes. Wha – what is this?!”

“Well, that's a big question, Keith.” Her voice is calm, and there's something disconcerting about how that's the third time she has said your name in this conversation. “And what it is, is none of your goddamn business.”

“Listen there, Harry Potter”, you begin, trying to sound tough, but Aubrey lowers her hand towards you face you fall silent.

“You're gonna stop talking and you're gonna listen. Now, I'm here doing good. I'm helping. Because imagine hat if I weren't helping, you wouldn't have woken up. Do you understand me, Keith?”

Four, you count in your head, and nod.

“And now, if you agree, I'm gonna get a doctor. And we're gonna say that you were in an accident riding your bike down the hill. You broke your leg and hit your head on a tree in the fall. And we can get you all fixed up. Right? But I want you to understand something, Keith. If you breathe a word… of anything that you’ve seen… I will burn you from the inside out. Do you understand me?”

You don't agree immediately. You don't _want_ to give in, but there's not much you can do about it now. Even if Aubrey didn't set fire to you, there is no way you can carry yourself to safety alone. “Al right, all right”, you finally mutter. And there is only one way you can think of to save at least a bit of your pride: playing it as a joke. “You gotta tell me – you gotta tell me one thing though. I won’t tell anybody, I don’t wanna get killed. I just… I just wanna get back home and go to bed. Probably should get to the hospital and get my leg fixed up first. But you gotta tell me one thing, Aubrey. Was that the fucking Mothman?”

And you swear, beneath her sunglasses, the tiniest smile tugs at the corner of her mouth as she says: “Don't be ridiculous, Keith.”

Six, you count, as you feel a strange tightness in your chest that's entirely unrelated to your accident.

*

You would have kept that promise, although you still want to tell Hollis so badly. Yes, you are a little scared of Aubrey, but you also do believed her when she said she wanted to good. She stuck up for Jake, and she saved your life. You wouldn't have told anyone, if things hadn't gone _so_ bad at the Hornets' Nest.

You've known Hollis for a while, and they're not easily shaken. They're usually the one who stays grounded and knows what to do, even during the bad stuff. Of course some of the Hornets have gotten into accident, a couple of them pretty nasty ones, and Hollis always took care of it. You have never seen them as shaken as they are after after the attack. They remain fairly composed while they're talking to the police, in front of Beven and Tim, but after everyone has left and the two of you are the only ones left in front of the bar, you see their hand shake on the handlebar of their bike. Seeing them like this is deeply unsettling. The medics want to take you to the hospital, so you ask them to come along instead of letting them drive home.

The doctors say you may be concussed and want to keep you at the hospital overnight. They call your parents, too, and Hollis sits at the end of your bed while you wait for them to arrive. Without their leather jacket and combat boots, they look small and vulnerable, and there's nothing you can do except tell them what you know, help them make some sense of what happened. This is Hollis, your leader, your best friend. How could you not tell them? For now, this is where your loyalties lie.

*

You don't regret telling them, you only regret Aubrey having to burn you from the inside out now. You really wish Hollis wouldn't make such a big deal of “taking over the monster hunting business”. There was no need to show up at Amnesty Lodge and let Aubrey know you did the one thing you promised not to do:

“So Keith told me everything about the monsters. Told me that you all work to fight them and keep it a big secret.“

She's with her friends, the forest ranger and the weird guy who runs the monster museum. There's also a tall woman and a guy with a beard, and a bunch of other people, some of which you recognize by sight. Jake is there. For a second it makes you feel a little childish, showing up on your bikes like this.

With her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses, it's difficult to determine how angry Aubrey looks, but there's a subliminal threat in her voice when she says: “ Huh. Hey, Keith? Hollis? Can we talk to you over here just for a _mo_?“

Thankfully, Hollis isn't interested in talking “I’m good. I’m new with this obviously, but is the plan that you usually keep us, you know the rest of the town, in the dark and then after someone gets slaughtered then you step in to clean up the mess? Is that how-“ You stay behind them, as Aubrey approaches your gang.

“I don't know what you're talking about”, she says, clearly trying to sound cool but there's a slight strain to her voice that betrays her tension.

Hollis, on the other hand, has recovered their coolness since last night, and their terror has given way to a grim resolve to do whatever they have to do in order to avenge your friends and keep Kepler safe. “Okay”, they say with a calmness you know is designed to rile Aubrey up. “Well good news. You don’t need to know what I’m talking about anymore. You all are relieved of duty... we’ll take it from here.”

But Aubrey doesn't miss a beat. She gives an incredulous laugh. “Monster! Are you kidding me? Ugh. I told Keith.” She looks at you briefly and a chill runs down you back. “He – Listen. He got a bonk on the head when he crashed off his bike. We found him like that. He was in a daze. I think he might have had a concussion. You know how that is; you do stunts, right? Concussions have to be a major worry for you guys. He kept going on and on about monsters and stuff. And, I don’t know. Ha ha! Monsters!” She laughs again.

Of course Hollis isn't that stupid. They turn to the forest ranger instead and say: “I wanna hear it from him.”

“What exactly do you wanna hear me say?”

“Well, according to what Keith told me, all of you were there when the, I guess, goatmen attacked. Which I’m assuming is one of the kind of monsters that seem to besiege our hometown on a daily basis…? So, I was just wondering if you were going to outright lie about it, like Aubrey here.”

Aubrey doesn't look at Hollis anymore, she looks at you, and you try to find her eyes behind the sunglasses. You want her to know that you did not mean to betray her like this; that you only told them because you were there when _something_ attacked your friends, your family; that you were thrown through the bar and could have died as well; that you're terrified of something like this happening again, and that you would do anything to prevent it. You want her to know you're sorry. Because you are.

The confrontation is abruptly brought to an end by a man in a suit exiting the lodge. He opens his jacket to reveal an FBI badge, and you tense up. This can't be good.

“Everything going okay out here?”

“Oh yes”, the museum guy, Ned, replies cheerfully, “Agent Stern, our friends here were just _leaving_ , they were just setting out. They’re on a mission from God. And we say to them, and I mean this most sincerely, Hollis, go for it. Knock yourselves out, go on your little mission, and godspeed.”

You take Hollis' arm, letting them know it's time to go. They give you a tiny nod, and put their helmet back on, which is a signal for the other hornets to do the same. You're about to turn around and get back on your bike, when Aubrey's voice calls you back.

“Real quick, Keith, before you go. Let’s hang out sometime, you and I. We’ve got some catching up to do.“

You wait a second for Hollis to stop you, but they don't, so you walk over to Aubrey, lifting the visor of your helmet and wishing she would do the same. “Everyone saw it”, you say. “I know what we talked about, Aubrey, everyone saw it. And you can threaten to kill me all you want, but apparently there’s other stuff out there that’s actually doing it.”

At that, you think you see her shoulders relax a little, like her defenses are lowered, and if you could only find the right thing to say you might make her understand. But with all the other people around, all you can do is shrug, and follow Hollis.

*

Later that day, before you and Hollis part ways, they put a hand on your yours, resting on the handlebar of your bike. “Sucks that things went this way with the girl, huh”, they say quietly. _The girl_ , you understand, is Aubrey. And _sucks_ , you know means _sorry_. “But honestly, I think she's into girls anyway.”

This time it takes a few seconds before the penny drops, before you understand what they imply. And, oh, you realize, they may not be entirely wrong.

*

And now you're in the middle of the woods, looking at an archway through which the monster came that killed your friends. And there's Aubrey, getting out of a truck with Jake behind the wheel. Two hours ago, you might have been happy to see her, but things have changed. Now you know that she knew about this archway and kept it from you – all of you, but also you personally. Even after she has come clean about fighting the monsters and her magic. It is a lot to take in. When she approaches your gang, you pray she's not gonna speak to you, because you don't know what to say to her – but then, when she turns to Hollis, you feel a pang of disappointment.

Hollis crosses their arms tightly and looks at Aubrey defiantly. “I don't get why you didn't tell us about this-”, they begin, only to be interrupted by Aubrey immediately.

“Oh really”, she snaps. “You don't see how this might – oh yes, because everything is going super calmly now. Oh, why would we not wanna tell this armed mob of people about this thing, yeah, cause you all took it so _fucking_ well.”

“Aubrey, if this is where the monsters that are killing us are coming from”, Hollis says slowly, “then yeah I think we have a right to know.”

“Okay, Hollis, let me ask you something then. On the other side of this portal – I'm gonna lay it all out for you, alright? Are you ready? One hundred percent honesty. On the other side of this portal is another world. Just like – the same scope and size of ours, with a population of people and – just like us, just like us – right?” She stumbles through her explanation, gesturing wildly. “And think about this: in... in – let's say West Virginia alone – not even the whole world, the whole earth, West Virginia alone, right – how many people do you think there is, _per capita_ ration, that's murderers to just regular people? So what if someone said there are murderers in West Virginia, so we're gonna march into West Virginia and kill everyone there, cause they _might_ be murderers... What if the only thing you knew about West Virginia is that some murderers came from here, and you said so let's just go in and wipe everyone out -”

“If they were coming in and murdering my friends and family”, Hollis finally interjects, entirely unimpressed by her speech.

“You would come in and wipe out the whole state and murder innocent people just in case they _might_ be murderers? What does this make you Hollis?”

They snort, and turn away from Aubrey, but you linger for a second longer and her eyes fall on you. “What about you Keith?”, she asks coolly.

“So the vampire thing that attacked us... you know the truth about that, too, Aubrey?”, is all you can say. The circumstances of your first meeting have anything but fortunate, and you know that she blames you for the Hornets finding out about the monster; you know that you're not friends. But you thought at least you were honest with each other now.

You see her face harden with something akin to disappointed. “Okay, fuck off, Keith”, she hisses, and leaves you behind as she hurries towards the the tall woman in the lawn chair. She's the one you saw at the Lodge. Hollis puts their hand on your arm. “Come on, man, we've got more important things to deal with right now.”

“She wasn't all wrong though, was she?”

“Of course not. But we're not raiding anyone, are we? We're just ready to defend our home.”

You nod, but your gaze is drawn back to Aubrey, who is now heading for the stone archway in the middle of the clearing. And then, while flipping everyone one off, she steps through it, and she's gone. Hollis grips your arm hard. “Fuck”, they mutter, and you don't really have anything else to say. Of course you had seen her use magic, which was wild, but this was even wilder. You look around the clearing, gauging everyone's reactions. They all seem to be frozen in shock, now that there is no doubt about the existence of the portal anymore. No one seems eager to follow Aubrey, except maybe Hollis, who has the same kind of focused look about them like when they're about to do a new stunt. But they would never leave the rest of the Hornets behind.

Finally, the sound of an approaching car engine breaks the tension. You can tell it must be a big vehicle, even before you see a food truck appear between the trees. Behind the steering wheel, you see Ned Chicane, owner of the Cryptonomica, host of _Saturday Night Dead_ , monster hunter and whistle blower. His arrival makes you nervous somehow. As he opens the door of the driver's cab and climbs on top of the van, you exchange a look with Hollis. They are ready.

You are not sure if you are.

“Good job, friends! You have mobilized, you have armed yourselves and you are ready for the terrible conflict that is about to come – I am so proud of you, I am so pleased that all of you have risen to this challenge! Here's the thing: I have gotten some new intel that the creatures are trying to pull a classic flanking maneuver and are planning on attacking...uh, out at the giant satellite dish. We must go immediately there. Take all our forces and prepare ourselves to fight off these fiends, these evil creatures! Will you follow me one more time, into battle, on again, once more, dear friends, into the breech, onward, to the giant satellite dish?”

“That has to be some kind of bluff”, Hollis mutters.

“Yeah, something is off”, you agree, but neither of you is entirely convinced. Chicane does seem to know a hell of a lot more about what is going on in Kepler than you, and you don't want to risk not being there when the creature returns. At the same time, your instinct tells you to stay where you are. “Send Beven with some people. You and me, let's stay here.”

Hollis nods, and gives Beven a quick wave, which he understands as a sign to head for the satellite. A couple of other Kepler citizens are joining him. You and Hollis stay put, watching Chicane closely as he speaks to the woman and the bearded man Aubrey spoke to before she left.

Suddenly, a bright white light in the shape of a great box appears against the backdrop of the dark forest. Here we go again, you think, but you can't actually say a word. Even Hollis has fallen silent, their eyes fixed intently on Chicane, who approaches the strange light box carefully. He then raises what looks like a toy gun to the light. “Listen, everybody just do me a favor: back off! Because when I shoot this thing – and I _will_ shoot you”, he addresses the light, “I'm not exactly sure what's gonna happen. But you all need to back off just in case there's some kind of unpleasantness that... occurs when I shoot it – and I _will_ shoot it.” There is the agent you saw at the Lodge now and the men are arguing. “What do you think this giant threatening white sarcophagus-”, Chicane yells. “Do you think it's a good guy? This is one of the bad guys! This was in the place where I was... zapped over to! This is in league with the shapeshifter thing! This is in league with the thing that's been opening rifts all over town and been attacking people and killing people, this is not some Goodwill ambassador, _put your fucking gun away_!”

And when you think things cannot get any wilder, the light box begins to change form and shrink into the shape of a feral looking woman with blonde hair and then your feel like your whole body is going numb. It's a quiet, absolute kind of terror that grips you, unlike the cold panic you felt the other night at the Hornet's Nest, unlike the hot sense of fight-or-flight Aubrey's threats invoked. You feel like time is slowing down, like you are watching the scene in slow motion and you think: this is how I'm gonna die. As the blonde women slowly gets on her feet, you already see her charging towards yourself, Hollis, and the rest of the gang.

From the corner of your eye, you see Hollis raise their rebar like a sword.

Then, time seems to speed up again with a bang as Ned Chicane, like a missile, collides with the woman, wrestling her down in the snow.

It takes you a second to realize your mistake: the bang came first – and it came from behind you.

You feel yourself being thrown back into reality, and it feels like resurfacing after a dive when the acoustic noise under water is replaced by clear sounds. You hear a cacophony of screams, as the woman is pulled backwards just before she can tear into Chicane's neck.

Hollis' makeshift weapon falls at their feet as they turn around towards the group of Hornets behind you. You follow their lead and see Pigeon Wilson on her knees, crying and stuttering apologies. She is still holding the rifle. Hollis kneels down beside her and pulls her into a hug. The crowd around you begins to dissolve now, with some people fleeing the scene. None of the Hornets though. All of you are all still frozen in place, waiting for a sign from Hollis. There is nothing you can do for Pigeon, but you won't leave her behind to be picked up by Owens.

There is nothing you can do for Ned Chicane either. A smaller group has gathered around him, and surely there's nothing you can contribute to their collective effort to save him. Aubrey might be able to help, but she has no reappeared. Then again, part of you wishes she won't, so she doesn't have to see this.

But, of course, she does.

When Aubrey stumbles back through the archway as though she was materializing out of thin air, the atmosphere on the clearing is still apprehensive, but the tension of an imminent battle has subsided. She looks confused by the scene she has entered, as she slowly approaches the gathering around Ned Chicane.

You cannot hear a word of what is spoken as the tall woman wraps he arms around Aubrey and tries to comfort her, but you can tell that she is crying. You are about to walk over to them, ready to fool yourself into thinking there is something you can do for her, when a cool breeze sends a shiver down your neck. You turn around to where the wind seems to be coming from and are immediately thrown off your feet as a a deafening blast reverberates between the mountains. A tree is uprooted and barely misses the group of of people. Behind you, Hollis is cursing but their voice sounds far away as your ears are still ringing. And then there is a sound that follows the boom, this sickening deep cracking noise that shakes the ground as you scramble to your feet. Around you, the last people who had remained of the original gathering are panicking and running for the town. Hollis reaches out to you and you manage to pull them and Pigeon up. Somehow the night has become pitch black, so you can barely make out their face as they say:

“Try to make sure everybody gets out safely, I gotta stay with Pigeon.”

You nod, but then wonder if they can even see you. “Yeah, of course”, you say quickly. “Please be careful.”

Using your phone as a flashlight, you take in the situation. Some people are still on the ground, disoriented by the earthquake. Sheriff Owens and the tall woman are trying to lift Ned Chicane's body into the police car. Aubrey is nowhere to be seen.

“Do what they said”, you bark at the rest of the Hornets, as you jog across the clearing on shaky legs. You spot a flash of red hair between the trees, heading up the mountain, and without a second of hesitation you follow her.

Every step costs your enormous effort, and you know if you stop you won't be able to move again, so you plug along, always thinking of Aubrey, because _you absolutely cannot acknowledge the fact that there is a floating mountaintop above you_. If you do, you might go insane.

You find Aubrey among a group of strangers clad in ceremonial robes, illuminated by the colorful lights from above, at the exact moment the mountaintop crashes down from Mount Kepler.

You see Aubrey grab the woman and pulls her out of the path of destruction. But she does not move herself, as the boulder is breaking through the forest.

In this moment, you understand where the image of someone's heart dropping into their stomach comes from. You feel like a black hole has opened inside your chest and your heart is falling into a bottomless pitch black darkness. You're so sure she's going to die, you are mentally preparing to watch her get crushed.

But the mountaintop never hits her.

Miraculously, it stops in mid-air, as though someone had paused the scene. With the inertia of an incomprehensibly heavy object, the boulder begins to move again, but not towards Aubrey and the strangers, no, it begins to rise again with increasing velocity, like it was attached to a bungee cord. Except, it does not slow down again before changing directions once more, like something attached to an actual bungee cord would, its speed only increases until an ear-splitting crash lets you know it has collided with the mountain again, but you cannot see because a violent tremor has thrown you off your feet, face down into the snow. Blindly grasping for your phone, you crawl forward, sending out a silent prayer when your icy fingers close around the protective plastic case.

“Aubrey!”

You voice come out weak and strange, and you try to clear your throat, all the while still crawling ahead. The knees of your jeans are soaked, but you don't feel cold. It is the adrenaline, you know, and almost mechanically you recall the lectures Hollis has given you on safety. _Even if you feel fine then, go see a doctor, the effect will wear off_. Not too soon, you hope.

And then you reach Aubrey, and your senses seem to come flooding back to you. Her body feels hot under your fingers, which have gone numb and useless, and you pull her up into your arms. “Aubrey”, you croak, and then “shit”, as you see the blood stain on her thigh.

“Damn right”, she says weakly. “We're deep in it now. Keith, is that you?”

You had forgotten about the stranger somehow, and flinch a little when the woman touches your arm. She's small with black, serious eyes. She looks scared and exhausted, a combination which resonates strongly with you.

“If you got anything to do with this”, you say slowly, “you better fucking get away from me now, because the only reason I'm not gonna kill you is that I need to take care of Aubrey first.”

“Oh shut up,” Aubrey groans, but her voice is faint. Of course she'd still try to act tough, even though her leg looks like it hurts like hell. Despite everything, you cannot help but notice how she affects you. It's not a poetic image, no flame, no spark, no tug at your heartstrings, but a sense of familiarity in this mess of a situation, a reminder that things may be alright again.

The woman just nods. “Please get her to safety”, she says. Then she bends over Aubrey, stroking her forehead and cheek lightly. “Don't worry about us.”

In the blink of an eye, she has vanished, along with her cloaked companions. But it seems you have reached your maximum capacity of confusion, because you don't really give a damn anymore. There is nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can do is now is get away from here and bring Aubrey to the hospital.

“I'm gonna lift you”, you warn her as you get up on one knee. “Maybe hold onto me.” She glares at you for a second, before her anger crumbles away and her face contorts and she looks as though she's about to start crying. It's more than you can handle, so you just pull her closer with one arm, while carefully pushing the other one under her thighs. She winces, and you can't tell whether it's the pain or the discomfort of having you so close. “I'm sorry”, you murmur, whatever it may be.

You take a deep breath, then another, then you slowly get up. Her weight almost makes you fall over, because of course she's heavy, she's a whole damn human being, but you manage to keep your balance somehow. She must have felt you struggle, because now she reaches for your shoulder and holds on tightly, almost painfully so. Still, it makes carrying her a lot easier, and it keeps you focused. The rustling of the treetops is the only sound you hear now, and with the biggest danger apparently being over you feel the adrenaline rush subsiding.

“It'll be fine – _you'll_ be fine, trust me”, you tell her. It's a pretty bold statement, you know, especially from someone who doesn't really get what is actually happening. “We just need to get to the clearing, that's where I left my bike. Then I can get you to St. Francis.”

This gets Aubrey's attention. “I need to get to the Lodge”, she says firmly.

The huff which escapes you expresses something between amusement and indignation. “Trust me, the medical service there is not really up to scratch.”

She raises her brows, obviously just as surprised as you are yourself by the sudden change of tone. It seems ages ago that she'd brought you to Amnesty Lodge after your clash with the goatmen. Only then you realize she has lost her sunglasses. Both of her eyes glow with a warm, orange light.

“Please”, she whispers.

You don't reply, but then and there you decided that you can't refuse her when she's looking at you like this.

When you stumble onto the clearing where – thank God – you bike still lies in the snow, her head has sunken against your chest. Her arm is loosely draped around your neck and just above your hip, where her thigh is pressed against you, your shirt is soaked in warm blood. You know you ought to have applied pressure, but there was simply no way of doing that while carrying her. You feel helpless and desperate, and for a second you stop and close your eyes.

“I would like the bleeding to stop.”

You don't expect it to work, but for a moment you are scared enough to try. Scared for Aubrey, who, to your immense relief, hasn't passed out. She turns her head and murmurs: “What did you just say?”. You do not reply. She's heard you alright, you think. But Aubrey insist: “Did you just try to heal me? With magic?”

Did you? You're not quite sure yourself. Did you really try?

“It was more like stating the fact”, you say, and immediately deflect: “Can you stand for a few seconds? I don't know how to get you on the bike without... I need to pull it up and...”

“Sure, yeah, no problem.” She wriggles out of your arms and immediately stumbles, but she manages to grab your arm before she falls. “See, I'm fine.”

Somehow you manage to pull your bike upright and keep it upright while helping Aubrey climb onto it. You sit behind her with one arm on either side, your hands covering hers on the handlebars. They are deathly cold now, even colder than yours, which can't be a good sign.

Before you get to start the bike, she turns her head to look at you over her shoulder. “You came back for me”, she says.

“You're welcome.”

“It wasn't really meant to be – I wasn't thanking you. Just... stating the fact.”

There's a spark in her eyes, and this time it is somewhat poetic; it sets you on fire.


End file.
